sbeak

No problem! The developer had added like 50 something bits in there, so it can do quite a lot.

lost it when I hears you said soldered RAM haha

Yeah, it is a bit of a bummer. As least it’s 32GB, so more than enough for most people. It doesn’t help that a new FW 13 Pro is very close in price to the System76 option when specced similarly, and FW actually takes the edge with higher storage capacities (+ you can bring your own M.2 if you have one already)

Not to mention the ability to upgrade from an older gen FW and all the other fun bits. Nice of have some competition though, and the Lemur Pro does have some other merits like being a bit lighter and having a 16" (non-touch) screen size option

Image Toolbox on Android (available on F-Droid) is awesome and has lots of little bits for editing images, collaging, simple sketching, etc.! Super useful. And there are lots of dedicated drawing apps if you’re an artist, but those usually work better on a tablet w/ a stylus

Of note, Pop! OS is based on Ubuntu, not Arch! You might be thinking of SteamOS

The main differences is the upgradeable memory and customisability of the Framework laptop, and the option for a 16" size in the case of System76 (albeit no touchscreen).

Nice, it’s good to have them back. More options are always good. Looks like Fairphone 6 support is coming soon, excited for that!

As for the hardware, the System76 option has a 16" option in addition to the 14", while FW only has a 13.5" display in their “Pro” chassis (for now, at least). However, FW offers touchscreen on their device. Similar chipset options between the two, but the System76 seems to have soldered RAM (32GB) while FW uses LPCAMM2. The FW has other niceties too, like a haptic touchpad, interchangeable ports (though the System76 has better I/O than most), and customisable elements (international keyboard layouts, colourful bezels, etc.). The System76 laptop has the option to remove WiFi, webcam, and mics from the device for privacy if you needed that.

On the software side, the System76 laptop can come prebuilt with Pop! OS and Ubuntu, while Framework lets you go with either Ubuntu, Windows (ew), or BYO OS, but you can install any OS on either machine.

Speccing out both machines with 32GB/1TB and the Intel Panther Lake X7 chip results in a pretty similar price, with the FW being just under 200 USD above the equivalent System76. I think System76 might be using a slower SSD for their 1TB option though. With 2TB of storage (that are closer in read speeds), the System76 becomes a little more expensive than the FW! Also of note, FW offers a more affordable 16GB RAM option that can later be upgraded, since it’s LPCAMM2. The FW also has a higher end 64GB RAM option if you have a lot of money to burn.

edit: Somebody else also mentioned the System76 is a bit lighter too, which is neat!

I feel like some tricolours should get a pass. France and the Netherlands are the OGs, but many others are great too! Estonia’s is my favourite colour combination, but Germany, Lithuania, Romania, and Bulgaria are pretty recognisable too. Sierra Leone and Gabon have pretty underrated tricolours too. There are some that are too similar to others, like those of Russia (very similar to the Dutch), Chad (nearly identical to Romania), and Italy (pretty close to France, in my opinion Mexico did the colour combo better with the cool eagle)

As for the bicolours, you have the triage of Poland, Monaco, and Indonesia who are really similar. Poland should add their eagle back to the flag, birds are cool and it’s deeply tied to their history, and Indonesia needs to spice their flag up to be more interesting. Monaco should probably be annexed into France, maybe they could be an autonomous province or something. Then you have Ukraine, who have a pretty neat flag that is easily recognisable, but yes it is a little boring.

Austria and Latvia are quite similar to each other too, the latter has a thinner strip that’s more unique, but I feel like both could be improved.

Wait, that’s an actual flag? What the heck people are weird man

I feel like if the U.S. redesigned their flag, they should definitely put an eagle on it. Birds are cool and should be on more flags!

I think it looks really cool too!

Communism, in the broadest definition, is the goal of achieving a stateless and classless society where everybody is equal with no hierarchy of any kind. In this umbrella, you have all sorts of different groups, you might have heard of “Marxists” or “Marxist-Leninists”, but this goal is also shared by non-Marxist socialists and some forms of anarchism too! Indeed, the first Communist International included the anarchists as they shared similar goals, but future “Internationals” did not as their methodology of achieving this utopia differed significantly.

Socialism is another broad term thrown around to describe a lot of things, but in a nutshell, a socialist advocates for reforms that move closer to a communist utopia (though that might not be the goalpost). It is sometimes also used to refer to “social democrats”, who uphold capitalism while pushing for social reforms that results in a more equal and less divided society. This is not to be conflated with “democratic socialists”, who are anti-capitalist and pro-democracy.

Not all communists are socialists, and not all socialists are communists.

As small tidbit, not all communists are Marxists, that term specifically refers to those who believe in the ideas of Karl Marx. They are not necessarily authoritarian, but many of Marx’s ideas can be interpreted as such. Marxist-Leninism / Bolshevism is an extension of Marxism that focuses more on a violent revolution and a strong authoritarian state. There are also other forms that revolve around various different people, like Stalinism, Trotskyism, Maoism, etc., but most of those are pretty cult-like.

Personally, I support democracy and believe that a transparent government that lets the people decide on issues creates a fairer, more equal society. I guess you could also say I’m a socialist, as I like the idea of a more egalitarian society and I support the social reforms that try to achieve that

Small note, I’m not an economist, but I do know that socialism aims to give more economic control to the working class over the owning class (businessmen and that sort). Things like unions, minimum wages, paid maternity leave, etc. stemmed from socialists and generally improved the lives of workers!

This is a pretty unhelpful, dare I say DUUUUUUMB, answer

And the Swiss flag can be easily represented with a 5x5 grid of pixels, which is pretty cool!

There are many valid opinions, but these aren’t, I’m sorry to say

Laser kiwi is cool, and the proposals to include more Maori symbolism are great too!

The Swiss flag should stay the same, since all squares are rectangles! Plus you have the Vatican being quite square too

As an Aussie, green and gold is not an ugly combination, it’s one of the greatest!

Tricolours are cool, and they’re not all bad! Estonia’s is probably my favourite (all the Baltics have great flags), but France and the Netherlands were some of the OGs, and Germany is pretty distinct too. Gabon and Sierra Leone have pretty underrated tricolours too.

That is something I’ve heard of, and I think it’s because Apple has more resources to focus on more professional video codecs and such (which others may not bother with due to it being good enough for most people already)

Just from my personal experiences when I was using an iPhone several years ago, as well as whatI have seen on the Internet

I don’t see the issue with a 60 Hz display, you’re not getting one for gaming.

But the devices don’t exist in a bubble. Laptops that cost much less get 90 or 120 Hz displays, and similarly priced options get OLED and touch support!

They have thunderbolt 4 ports, which is all you need

Until you need to connect your laptop to an HDMI display and don’t happen to have the required dongle that is sold separately. Or when you have a USB(-A) flash drive, you need a dongle too.

Both of these cases are very common for all groups of people, particularly in educational settings.

Some people prefer shallow key travel.

Fair point actually

but there is absolutely nothing wrong with their laptops other than being a bit more pricey.

Again, that’s the issue.

Personally, I don’t get why the solution to many of the issues people experience with Apple devices is to buy another one.

Yes, this is only a subset of people and the Internet shows you the worst of them, but I still find it a little hard to believe somebody reasonably suggests to purchases another device that costs so much!

you always never get pure Android, it is bloated by phone manufactures. You have the Samsung app store and the xiaomi app security checker and other bloat.

That is true, my specific device has a pretty bloated ROM that doesn’t listen to me at all! Whenever I install an app through F-Droid / Obtainium / Aurora Store / etc., it does a “security check” that always fails (what’s the point then?) and tells me not to install this app, despite having given the install unknown apps permission already! And whenever there’s an internet problem, the phone tells me to disable private DNS (I’m using NextDNS), and there’s no option to disable that. The phone also has a whitelist for SMS messaging apps, meaning I have to choose between the stock app and Google Messages, which isn’t great.

Most of the initial advertising and such can be disabled though, and with Android I can use a custom launcher (Kvaesitso) that feels infinitely better than both the stock launcher and whatever iOS uses! And I can actually access the files through USB like a sane person, which is way better than the delicate dance with iTunes that Apple required!

If I ever get another device, I would definitely go with one that supports something like LineageOS or GrapheneOS (maybe CalyxOS if they come back), or perhaps mobile Linux will be strong by then? Who knows.

Windows is a huge pile of crap

Indeed, even if somebody was oblivious to how privacy invasive Windows is, the OS is annoying nowadays and is too bloated to run on lower end devices. If only a large manufacturer pushed Linux on the desktop as an option for a reduced cost (currently it’s just Valve, Lenovo on some of their business class devices, and smaller manufacturers like Framework and System76). Imagine if Dell, Asus, etc. had the guts to say screw you Microsoft, and they developed their own spin of Linux for their own hardware that ran better, that would be neat. Unfortunately, money. It seems like MS is currently one of the main drivers for Mac adoption…

Apple has a very straightforward design that is instantly recognizable. People love that

People like knowing what they are expecting, they don’t like surprises. I think this makes sense, given that Apple has been doing a similar design ethos of metal and glass for ages now (even in product categories where it isn’t all that great in, like their headphones and headset).

by paying a higher price, people have the feeling of buying “premium”

Perhaps given rising prices for everything now, more people will become price conscious? Dunno really

*only if by average you mean the median (as in 50th percentile) among a set of people organised by intelligence!

Just something to point out. Most people’s idea of average is the mean (adding all the things up and dividing by number of things).